


The Song of a Siren

by just_another_outcast



Category: Original Work
Genre: Crazy aunts, Gen, I apologize in advance, Loneliness, Mad Scientists, Mermaids, Ocean, One Shot, Original work - Freeform, Short Story, This is DUMB, but i may as well get some use out of it, i hate this, idek what to tag, idek why i'm posting this, merman, titanic reference
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-25
Updated: 2017-10-25
Packaged: 2019-01-23 04:53:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12499196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/just_another_outcast/pseuds/just_another_outcast
Summary: The sea still called to her, despite what had happened.  She supposed it always would.  Maybe one day she would accept its cold embrace, but right now, the goal was to keep on living.OrA girl finds something (someone)...interesting...in her mad scientist aunt's basement.





	The Song of a Siren

**Author's Note:**

> So I wrote this for an essay contest for a scholarship, and I just finished writing it today. So I go to the website to reread the rules for it and submit it, and what do I see, but 404 error. I emailed the official for the application papers instead, and she responds to me saying that they decided not to do the scholarship this year. That means that I spent hours writing a short story for money that I'll - that no one - will ever get. To say I'm pissed in an understatement. There are so many other scholarships that I need to apply for, and I just wasted to much time on this one that will never see the light of day. So here you go. You all get to read this stupid thing. I hope you think I would've gotten money for it I guess. This isn't proofread btw. It's not really worth it.

“My heart is pierced by cupid,  
I disdain all glittering gold.  
There is nothing can console me,  
But my jolly sailor bold.”

The girl continued to quietly sing the sea shanty as she stared out at the watery depths at the base of the cliff. The song would be a hearty one, had it been sung by its intended sailors, but it carried a haunting feel when the girl sang it, quietly, and alone. The tune seemed to hang in the dense fog long after the girl had quieted. She was content to stand in silence at the cliff’s edge.

With sharp rocks at the bottom, the girl had no dreams of jumping off, but often stared down at the water below, hoping for, well, something. She wasn’t sure what. The water crashed against the rocks at the bottom of the cliff, bringing the girl back from her silent thoughts. The smell of the sea filled her nostrils, and the faint call of a whale reached her ears. Not for the first time did the girl wish she could follow that sound and never return. The loss of her parents had hit her hard the month before, and she had been sent to live with her estranged aunt, who had been estranged for a reason. Although no one had ever said it, they all knew her aunt was crazy. She may not have been truly insane, but she may as well have been. But the girl didn’t want to think about her aunt in that moment. She wanted to enjoy the little time she had alone by the ocean.

The massive house was only fifty feet from the sharp edge of the continent itself. From there, the Pacific Ocean was all the eye could see. The girl may have hated it there, but she had always loved the views in northern California. The house was a short drive from the beautiful redwood forests, and sported views of ships and whales alike from the back. Nearly the entire back of the house was one large window. The house itself was ‘L’ shaped, with the three bedrooms off a hallway down the short side. The end of that side was a door that lead out to a small garden. It wasn’t much, but the garden was filled with flowers and wrought iron fencing that gave it that mystical feeling the girl loved. The long side of the house contained a massive family room with high ceilings, an average sized kitchen and breakfast nook, a smaller living room, a laundry room, and a study. Windows covered the back wall of each of those rooms.

The girl sighed, knowing she should go back inside soon. If only she could stay out for just a while longer. Taking a long final look at the crashing waves below, the girl began to turn away, but stopped when she thought she saw something. There appeared to be someone on the rocks at the bottom of the cliff. Straining to see through the fog, the girl gasped in shock when she saw the figure glance up at her, then take a leap into the roaring waves. It looked like a young man, not much older than the girl herself. But it couldn’t have been. Not only would no one be stupid enough to try to swim in waves that strong, but no one would physically be able to. It would be impossible. The girl must have been mistaken. She had to have been seeing things. Shaking her head, the girl turned around and starting walking towards the house. All the while, she couldn’t get the image of the boy in the water out of her head. He had looked quite attractive after all. But of course, it was just her lonely mind playing tricks on her. Of course she would imagine a cute boy from the sea.

Hours later, the girl and her aunt were eating yet another awkward dinner together. Neither one shared a word. Forks and knives quietly scraped across ceramic plates, with the occasional screech that they both attempted to ignore.

“How was school?” the girl’s aunt asked. This was how every dinner went. The two would eat in silence for a while, then one of them would attempt to make conversation. Neither one liked the other, and both hated the situation. The girl was planning on saving them both the trouble and moving out the day she turned eighteen, which would be in a few months.

“Fine,” was all the girl could bring herself to say. Since moving across the country, she had failed to make any new friends. She had loved the few she had back home dearly, but was struggling to do the same in California. Part of that was due to her not wanting to accept that, for the time being, she was there to stay.

“That’s all you’re gonna say? It’s your senior year, and all you do is go to school, go to work, and mope around everywhere. I know this isn’t what you wanted for you life, but it’s not what I wanted for mine either. It wasn’t just your parents who died, it was my sister and brother-in-law. I never got married or had kids for a reason, but now I’m stuck with you. The least you could do is be useful around here or go out with friends. At least that way you’d be doing something productive for one of us.”

Her aunt stood up from the table and brought her dishes to the sink. The girl sighed, but said nothing. She was used to this.

“And don’t go to my lab. I just got some very sensitive new equipment down there for an experiment I’m planning, and I don’t want you messing any of it up.”

The woman was a scientist, or at least a mad scientist. Her experiments often got her in trouble with various environmental rights groups, and even the police. She had never done anything that was truly illegal - at least not that anyone knew for sure - but she straddled the line quite a bit. Whatever she was working on now was likely no less potentially illegal.

Once her aunt had left the room. The girl got up from the table and began to wash the dishes. She put what she could into the dishwasher, but washed the pots and pans by hand. Her aunt had likely gone back down to her lab in the basement, which meant that the girl probably had another few hours by herself. She walked silently to her bedroom, walked over her half unpacked boxes, and took her violin. The girl left the house through the garden, and walked into the forest, playing whatever came to her mind as she walked. This was when she truly felt free. Just her, the music, and the beauty of nature. The smile that graced the girl’s face would have been enough for any bystander to believe that she had never been happier. This was where her joy was found. Before her parents had passed, the girl had never enjoyed playing as much, but they had loved it. Her parents had always wanted her to play for them, and typically, she would begrudgingly do it. Now, when she played, it felt like her parents were still there with her.

Her aunt, on the other hand, hated music, or any sound she deemed “unnecessary”. That of course didn’t include her own unintelligible ramblings. The girl the only thing she could. She played outside. The humidity wasn’t always good for her violin, but she knew how to take of it. Now, the girl found herself once again by the sea. The forest went right up to the cliff, with some trees barely clinging to it. The girl had halted her playing as she had gotten closer to the edge, and now held the violin by the neck at her side, with her bow held out in front of her like a sword. This time, she saw no boy in the waves, but she did see a boat. Her smile fell. It wasn’t the boat that was bringing tears to her eyes, but the memory of her parents’ death on one. They had always loved the sea, and had passed on that love to their only daughter. Despite their demise, the girl still loved the ocean, but she could never look at sailboats or yachts without that particularly painful memory resurfacing.

The girl took a breath, brought her violin back up to her chin, a single tear dripping onto the wood, and began to play again. The heart-wrenching sound of James Horner’s “Hymn to the Sea” filled the girl’s ears and was carried out to the sea by the gentle breeze. She knew it was cliche, but it was fitting, and felt like a direct tribute to her parents. Her performance was moving, and would’ve brought tears to the eyes of anyone who witnessed it. But she was alone, and the only audience she was playing for was the memory of her parents.

In time, the girl finished playing, collected herself, and walked back to the house, her bare feet silently stepping on the pine needles on the forest floor. She had been playing for an hour, and figured she should go back, just in case. Creeping silently back through the garden, the girl took the time to take in the beauty of the flowers and smell some of them. She would have to pick some soon.

Upon arriving back in her room, the girl was left with a few decisions, the most important one being whether or not she would continue to unpack her belongings, or if she would simply take them as she needed them, and leave them in their boxes until then. She knew she really should unpack them, but she just couldn’t bring herself to do it yet. The girl decided to read more of her book instead. In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick could capture her attention for another hour or so.

That night, the girl couldn’t sleep well. Her dreams were plagued by images of her parents, drowning, calling out to her, with the girl unable to save them as the boat sank with them trapped inside. She refused to sleep the rest of the night. Making a cup of coffee and exploring the basement of the house seemed like a much better idea.

The girl crept quietly from her room and walked down to her aunt’s, just to be sure that she was asleep. She was. The girl enjoyed the silence as she brewed a cup of coffee in the kitchen, the only noise being the sound of the coffee pouring into the pot. She breathed in the wonderful smell of the coffee and got out a mug for herself, as well as plenty of cream and sugar. The girl loved coffee, but hated the taste. She needed to add a lot to it in order to make it drinkable for herself.

Once she had her coffee, she carefully walked over to the basement door, and opened it. Basements were rare in that part of the country, so it was odd to begin with that the old house had one. The girl hadn’t taken a trip down there yet because of her aunt. Now was as good a time as any. Taking her mug in hand, she slowly walked down the stairs, and turned on the light at the bottom. Her aunt had never said she couldn’t go into the basement - except for that evening, because of her new equipment in the lab that was in the basement - but the girl figured that she probably shouldn’t say anything in the morning.

The basement looked normal enough. It was unfinished, with no carpeting or drywall. Nothing interesting. Opening the door to the lab, the girl briefly considered not going in, remembering her aunt’s words. She went in anyway, and closed the door behind her. Flipping on the light, the girl could now see what must be the equipment her aunt had been talking about. There was a lot of stuff one might find in a chemistry lab at a university or think tank, and some other stuff the girl had never seen before. The most curious thing she saw was a metal grate covering what looked like a small closet. Pulling the grate apart, the girl stepped inside. The only thing inside the small space was a control panel on the wall, with only one button. She pressed it.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then the closet started moving with a sudden jerk downwards. Steadying herself against the wall, the girl realized that it wasn’t a closet at all, but an elevator. Down, down, down it went, for what seemed like a full minute, but couldn’t have been. When it finally stopped, the girl pulled aside the metal grate covering the entrance, and cautiously stepped out, feeling for a lightswitch along the wall.  
Once the light turned on, the girl was greeted by the sight of more science equipment, and a large tank filled with water. It was about seven feet tall, four feet long, and five feet wide. That in and of itself wasn’t odd, but it was connected straight to the wall, where the water hit. What looked like a control panel of some sort was on the wall next to the tank. Intrigued, the girl walked up to it and held her hand over one of the buttons. She knew it was risky to press any more of the buttons, but her aunt hated her already, so what was the worst that could happen?

Before she could convince herself not to, the girl pressed the button closest to the tank. She wasn’t quite sure what she had been expecting, but it wasn’t for the wall behind the tank to open up. The wall was only a divider. She couldn’t see much through the opening, due to the darkness beyond, but she could see and hear that the water flowed through it..

Pressing the opposite button, part of the wall on the right side of the girl slid open to reveal a small staircase. Cautiously, the girl stepped up them, and turned on the flashlight on her phone once she reached the top. It couldn’t light up the whole room, but it did a good job of showing the girl her immediate surroundings. She was in a large cave with water running through it. Just as in the smaller room, the water ran right up to the edge of the cave. The girl smiled to herself, and couldn’t help but wonder if there was yet another secret door that let to a room more mysterious than the last.

Taking a sip from her coffee, the girl slowly strolled around the cave, looking for some kind of lightswitch. She could see industrial size lights on the ceiling, but they were turned off. There was a large control panel embedded in the stone, but the girl didn’t want to risk pressing another button without knowing exactly what it would do. Walking over to the panel, the girl closely examined it with her flashlight for any signs that explicitly said what the button or lever did. She panned her phone across the panel, seeing some signs reading intelligible things like “temperature”, “electricity”, “hatch”, and “pH level”, and other signs reading other scientific jargon that the girl couldn’t even begin to understand. Eventually, she found a lever reading “lights”, and with a grunt, turned it to the “on” position. Each light slowly flickered on, lighting up the cave, and rendering the light coming from the girl’s phone useless.

The girl’s eyes widened in awe at the beauty of the cave. Stalagmites and stalactites alike littered the cavern, all of varying shapes and sizes. It was unlike anything she had ever seen. Why had her aunt kept this a secret? There was nothing down there anyway. That meant there was nothing for her to mess up. What could her aunt possibly be experimenting with? The girl shook her head in annoyance and sighed. She should try to go back to bed, but she would definitely be making another trip down there soon.

The next morning, the girl tried to contain herself at breakfast. She didn’t want her aunt to know that she had gone down to the lab. They didn’t get along as it was. They certainly didn’t need something else to start an argument. So instead of directly asking why there was a hollow cavern in the basement, the girl decided to dance around the subject, and try to get her aunt to tell her herself.

“So what’s the experiment you’re planning?” she asked. She tried not to make her voice sound too loud, but it was the only noise in the otherwise quiet kitchen.

“Wow, I didn’t know you actually cared about science,” her aunt replied dismissively.

“Well I do, so it might be nice to know what you’re doing, since you are supposed to be a scientist after all. But I don’t know how I’m supposed to know for sure since I never know what you actually do.”

“I am a scientist young lady. And for your information, it’s a research experiment involving a small known species of fish. Maybe I’ll even let you see it when I’m done, if it’s still alive at that point at least,” her aunt finished with a chuckle.

“Just don’t let it suffer, okay? You seem to not care, and you should. Animals can feel just as much pain as people.”

“Oh honey, I’m gonna do whatever I have to do in order to do the research I need to do, fish be damned. But, I can promise you that I’m not going to do anything to it that I don’t need to, and it’s not as I’m going to try to make it feel pain. I’m not a monster or anything.”

Her aunt got up from the table as she finished speaking, taking her dishes with her. She placed them in the dishwasher and slowly turned back to her niece, leaning against the counter.

“I have the fish now, and it needs very specific conditions, so, like I said last night, don’t go down there. Now, I’ve got some work to do.”

With that, her aunt walked away, a devious smile on her face. At least the girl now knew some of what her aunt was planning. She still wondered what kind of fish. Her aunt hadn’t seemed too keen on delving into that. Regardless, the girl was definitely going back down to the cavern that night. It was Saturday, and she had to work that evening, so at least she would be free of her aunt for the whole night, starting at about five o’clock. She would drive herself to and from work, and her aunt was always in bed by the time she returned. For now, the girl would go for a swim. The water was always cold, but it could be a refreshing chill sometimes.

As soon as she could, the girl got out to the cliff behind her house, and starting walking near it, all the way into the forest, until she found the slim path down the edge. There was a light breeze that played with her hair, lightly blowing it around. The rock of the cliff was rough beneath her fingers as she drifted her hand along the side of the earth as she walked down the path. Seagulls flew overhead, calling out to each other over the sound of the sea. The girl took a deep breath through her nose, smelling the amazing sea breeze in the process. It was a beautiful day.

The path lead directly into the water. Due to the time of day and the weather, and water was calm enough to swim in. The girl’s thoughts momentarily went back to the boy she thought she had seen in the water. Of course he hadn’t actually been there, but wouldn’t it be nice to go swimming with a friend?

There were occasionally sharks in the water, but the girl knew to be careful. Besides, it would be strange for a shark to come right up to the cliff itself. She swam along the cliff’s edge, all the way to right under her house. The water wasn’t too deep, but it was deep enough for the girl to swim around completely underwater. Although it was blurry, the girl was able to open her eyes. The water was clear, giving the girl a good view of the blue depths. Plenty of small fish swam around, some of them even pecking at the wall of the cliff. The girl watched them, amused. She soon noticed that the cliff face wasn’t entirely uniform. There was something on the side of it that the girl couldn’t quite make out. The girl went up to the surface to take a deep breath, then swam back down to the abnormity. Upon closer inspection, she realized that it was a hatch. Most likely, it was connected to the cavern underneath the basement. The girl almost laughed in spite of herself. Of course there was another secret “door”.

Surrounding the girl were fish of a plethora of species. They all swam to and fro, seemingly without a care in the world, just living their happy, short lives. They didn’t know true pain or suffering, just the sea. The girl envied them. She wished she could be like them, wished she could forget the pain of her parents’ deaths and the trials of living with her aunt. She wished she could swim out into the open ocean and never look back. No one would miss her. That thought made her heart ache even more. There was no one who truly cared for her, and only the water could make her feel at home. That’s all there was to it.

After some time, the water grew a little rougher, and the girl knew she should go back inside. Much to her dismay, she didn’t see the figure from the day before, but a girl could dream. The water held felt refreshingly cool, but getting out of the water was a different story. She shivered as she walked up the path, her wet hair sticking to her body, pale in the cold. The growing wind wasn’t helping. By the time the girl arrived back at the house, she was ready to slip into sweats, make some hot chocolate, and curl up by the fireplace.

So that’s exactly what she did. Not ten minutes later, the girl’s hair was being dried by the warm fire, and her body was being warmed by both the fire and the hot chocolate. It had been a good thing that the girl had gone inside when she did. Soon after she stepped inside, it started to heavily rain, and the waters of the sea began to churn, just like her heart. All she could think about was the poor fish that her aunt was experimenting on, after seeing so many of them in the sea. She knew her aunt was going to hurt it, and of course many people claimed that fish can’t feel pain, but no one was sure. The thought of some innocent creature being put through something so terrible tore at her heart.

Without much deliberation, the girl made up her mind. That night, she was going to save the fish. She wasn’t quite sure how, but she was going to do it. She would figure it out as she went along.

The day came and went, and soon enough, the girl was on her way home from her waitressing job. Upon arriving at her aunt’s house, she quickly showered and put on a pair of sleep pants and a tank top. Her aunt was already asleep, just as the girl had suspected she would be.

As quietly as she could, the girl made her way down to the basement, and then the upper laboratory. There was no fish to be found in any of the small tanks, so the girl took the elevator down to the lower laboratory. The door between the lab itself and the cavern behind it was already open, but the girl still couldn’t see any kind of fish. She quickly made her way up the stairs into the vast cave, turning on the lights as soon as she reached them.

The girl was still in awe at the vast size of the cave. How had her aunt kept it a secret that it was down there? There was no way she had built it all herself. Other people had to know. Still, it was impressive nonetheless.

Calmly making her way over to the channel of water, the girl began her search for the fish. With the lights on, it should be easier for her to see it, but she had no idea how large or small the fish was, or even what it looked like at all. What if it could camouflage itself? Then the girl might never find it.

She started closest to the lab, and had clear sight down to the bottom of the long tank. It was lined with metal, which would make any abnormality stick out like a sore thumb. Unless, of course, this mystery fish had some ability to hide itself. The girl made her way along the edge of the water, still not seeing the fish. She started to think she may not be able to find it, if it were there at all, but soon found herself to be very mistaken.

The girl jumped back with a gasp when she saw it. It was the boy from yesterday. But how could it be? There couldn’t have truly been a boy there, but here he was, looking exactly the same as he did the day before - the same hair, the same eyes, everything. But there was one thing about him that the girl certainly hadn’t seen the day before. Instead of being a regular boy with legs, he had a fish tail. The boy was a merman, complete with a radiant blue-green tail. He was desperately clawing at the side of the tank, at the metal hatch that was there. It wasn’t giving.

The girl couldn’t do anything but stare in shock, her breathing stopped for a second, then coming faster and faster, matching her racing heart rate. When her shadow fell over the boy - the merman - he looked up at her with a start himself. The two were then engaged in an impromptu staring contest, neither one wanting to be the first to break it. But soon enough, the girl fell to her knees at the side of the channel to get a closer look at the boy. She was close enough now to see that his brilliantly colored tail matched his eyes. They too were a radiant blue-green. She still looked at him, and he at her, neither one saying or doing anything, only keeping locked eyes, for roughly a full minute. Then, much to the girl’s surprise, the boy’s features softened from their look of surprise, and became serene. Along with the change in look, the boy seemed to stare at her with more intensity, and she heard a voice in her head that wasn’t her own.

“Help me”, she heard in her mind, or rather felt. She thought she heard a baritone voice in her head, but she knew she really hadn’t heard anything at all. She had felt the meaning.

All she could do was think in reply, “What?”

It didn’t exactly help either of them, but this wasn’t exactly a situation she had been in before, and her mind was still trying to come to terms with it all. She was looking at a real merman. To say she was still in shock was an understatement.

“Get me out of here,” came the voice - feeling - in her head again. It was calming, and she felt rather compelled to do as it said. She thought back to what she had seen on the control panel. There had been a sign that read “hatch”. That could probably open the hatch in the channel.

“I can open the hatch,” she thought back.

“Do it, and come with me. Let me take you with me,” the voice said in reply. The girl knew that was a terrible idea, yet she couldn’t help but want to do it. Despite not being human, he was still ethereally attractive, and very well built.

Her mind made up - and possibly without her own consent - the girl ran over to the control panel on the wall, and pulled the lever under the sign that read “hatch”. She quickly ran back over to the merman, who was now holding on to the edge of the channel, and slid into the water herself, holding her breath. The boy took her hand, softly smiled, and swam out the hatch and into the sea, pulling her with him.

“What’s your name?” came the voice again.

Darkness was encroaching on the edges of the girl’s vision, her lungs protesting against the lack of oxygen, her body feeling the increasing pressure as she and the boy swam further and further down. She replied, “Hope.”

The End


End file.
